Awakening

Posted on Fri Oct 10th, 2025 @ 4:28pm by Lieutenant Xex Wang
Edited on on Sat Oct 11th, 2025 @ 6:12pm

Mission: Port of Call
Location: Gymnasium
Timeline: Mission Day 6 at 0115

[Gymnasium]
[MD 6]

There were many advantages to a small ship like the Sojourner. Expansive recreational facilities, unfortunately, were not one of them.

Still, Xex thought as she stepped up to the side of the pool, curling her toes carefully over the edge toward the water, at least it's not so difficult to find a quiet time. One only had to choose a time deep in the gamma shift, when everyone who had to be awake was at their tasks, and everyone else was asleep-- or at least trying to be. The gymnasium was all but deserted, peopled by only one burly Trill hitting the weights in the corner. He hadn't even looked up when she walked in.

That was just as well. She felt even more off-balance than usual following the Sleep. The strange vertiginous feeling of her limbs not fitting in place quite right was made even worse by the surreal experience of waking to a ship that had taken substantial damage. The report the computer had given her was disturbing in the extreme-- hull breaches always were-- and she had wanted nothing more than to rush straight to sickbay to do whatever she could.

She'd wanted to, but she hadn't. Hard experience had taught her the folly of doing much of anything immediately out of the Sleep. She would only be a hazard to herself and others while she adjusted to the changes in her body, and her normal metabolic, hormonal, and nervous functions settled into place.

Instead, she'd had a sonic shower to remove the last of the flaking skin, eaten a liquid meal, and made her way to the pool. Movement in the buoyant medium of water, she had found, was just the ticket for her off-kilter balance and strangely-responding limbs. She'd often wondered if a space walk would accomplish the same, or perhaps better, result, but thus far had not considered the risk to be worth the potential reward.

Thus, the pool. Cautiously, she lowered herself to the edge, settling her buttocks on the plascrete and dipping her feet into the water. She didn't trust herself even to jump in, her equilibrium was so questionable, and the last thing anyone needed was a head injury in a pool. Holding on to the edge, she lowered herself the rest of the way into the water, easing out her breath as she felt her body buoyed up by the water. Floating on her back, she pushed off from the wall and glided, letting water fill her ears and allowing her eyes to close on the gym's ambient lighting. As external stimuli fell away and all she could hear was her own breathing, she concentrated on the gentle pressure of water on her too-new, too-sensitive skin.

Sixty measured breaths later, Xex began to actively swim, stretching and bending muscles that felt alien. As one lap turned into two, turned into ten, and twenty, and fifty, she eased into a form that, while not actually new, certainly felt that way.

Most of an hour later when she finally hauled herself out of the water, she felt a measure of equilibrium had returned. Toweling herself off, she swiped a hand over her hairless scalp, but losing every piece of body hair was a familiar annoyance. She hated having to grow it all back. Towel over her arm, she took a confident step forward just as the first early risers of alpha shift began to enter the gymnasium. She skirted a group of loudly chattering ensigns, managed not to stumble over the edge of a rowing machine, and only bumped her shoulder once getting out through the door.

Excellent start, Wang, she thought, Now, don't skip the arboretum like you did last time. Sickbay will still be there once you've meditated. Probably.

Her thoughts skittered off the edge of the report the computer had given her of the events that had taken place while she'd been in stasis, unable to delve into the deep creases of destruction that had been wrought. That would come with time, but for now, she stuck to the practicalities. If she didn't she knew she would pay for it later.

[Sickbay]
[The next day]

In the end, she'd had to avoid the arboretum, the area around the space too damaged to permit safe entry, especially when she was hardly feeling hale and hearty. She'd made do with a hastily scheduled holodeck session and, while not exactly right, had allowed her to regain enough equilibrium to at least rest long enough to take her to her next task: sickbay.

Sickbay's doors slid open to reveal a department that had settled into routine following the rescue of the Sojo's personnel from Subrek's ship. Those still receiving ongoing care for injuries were doing so from the comfort of their own quarters, and now the only figures inhabiting sickbay were the medical staff and a few crewmembers who had come for their regularly scheduled check-ups.

Xex hadn't wanted to interrupt what she hoped was Marwol's smoothly-run operation and therefore still had not placed herself back on-duty. Though the medical lock and monitoring she'd had would have disappeared from the 'patients' status board, she was hoping no one was looking at her entry so closely that they would be expecting her. The reports she'd had access to from her suite had indicated an unfortunately eventful span of time while she had been Sleeping, and she was anxious to get the full story-- but not at the expense of Marwol's autonomy. The ACMO seemed to have performed adequately, and she had no desire to swoop in and change the dynamics of his sickbay.

When she stepped through the doors in her teal uniform and was greeted by the duty nurse however, she realized this strategy had been a mistake. “Hi,” Meldrun, a young-- barely out of adolescence-- human man greeted her warmly, “What can we--” he broke off, staring. Xex knew he would be seeing a person he both recognized and did not, a subtly altered being with the same silvery skin, but a softness to the features one usually associated with the female gender of most humanoids. Her uniform hid most of the other changes to her body, though she knew her breasts would be slightly visible beneath the teal fabric. Meldrun's expression shifted from surprised to confused, and Xex winced inwardly. So much for sneaking into sickbay.

“Good morning, Meldrun,” she greeted warmly, her voice still slightly graveled from both disuse and the changes the Sleep had wrought. “I don't want to cause a stir,” she hastened to add, “but I was hoping Doctor Marwol was in, and I might be able to re familiarize myself with sickbay's status.”

Xex could almost see poor Meldrun's brain trying to clunk back into gear as he continued to stare. She could have taken pity on him, but decided this was a valuable lesson for one of their newer nurses. Rather than breaking the awkward silence, she merely lifted her brows, folding her hands behind her back and meeting Meldrun's stare with an expectant look of her own. Clearing his throat, Meldrun finally glanced away, gesturing jerkily through main sickbay toward the CMO's office. “Of course, sir-- uh, ma'am?” When Xex did not confirm either, he swallowed and stammered on, “I saw him in his-- uh, your?-- um, that is-- the office a few minutes ago.”

“Thank you, Meldrun,” Xex said as she stepped forward, clasping the young man's shoulder comfortingly as she passed. The doors to the office opened before her, and she was relieved to see the young surgeon within-- she wasn't sure how many more Meldrun interactions she had in her on this first day back. She knew they would come in varying degrees-- humanoids would have their preconceptions-- but she had found that spacing them out was key to keeping her annoyance in check.

“Ah, Doctor Marwol. It is good to see you well...” she said as the door closed behind her, and she turned her mind to the medical workings of the Sojourner.